Heartaches by the Number
by silver-fox89
Summary: Raul meets up with Rachael after two long years, and learns through a story of her past that he's not the only one who's lost loved ones. rated M for mild themes. RaulXRachael


Heartaches by the Number

_Authors note: It's been forever since I did a fiction, and since I'm now completed my own story, I shall do this fiction in honour of Raul from Fallout: New Vegas and my ever lovable Rachael who is now a courier in the Mojave. New Vegas is Bethesda's and Obsidians._

No one ever expected a courier who cheated death to change the future of the Mojave wasteland. Rachael had managed to track down her killer, retrieve the platinum chip, join forces with the NCR and push the ominous presence of Caesar's legion out of the desert. All of that had been accomplished within a matter of weeks but along her travels she met a special companion who always had her back; A 230 year old Mexican ghoul named Raul Alfonso Tejada. He had some inner conflicts from his past, regrets he thought he'd never overcome but Rachael helped him see how useful to the world old men could still be and thanks to her efforts, he picked up his guns and stayed in the Mojave. It had been over two years since the NCR started running things, and Rachael had decided to part ways with Raul to further explore the desert and allow him his own freedom. He was currently tracking down a group of powder gangers who were wreaking havoc on a small settlement.

Raul's sense of justice was what drove him to protect the good and innocent, his old legs aching to support him while he remained in a crouch walk, sneaking around a large boulder. He could hear their banter and laughter while they sat around a campfire, unaware of the gun slinging ghoul who was hunting them; little did Raul know that he was also being hunted. Loud, thudding footsteps came so fast behind him that by the time he was able to react, he already felt the horns atop a Deathclaw's head dig painfully into his back, like a pronged battering ram. Raul's body flew several feet in the opposite direction, rolling a few times before his one hand stopped him and the other reached for his gun. The Deathclaw took one shot in the shoulder, quickly swiping and knocking the revolver from the old ghoul's grasp. There was no way Raul could have reacted fast enough to avoid the enormous claws that left four long gashes in his chest, knocking the air out of him and throwing his mind into a partially unconscious state to protect him from the intense pain. He knew what would come next; the beast would bring both claws down on his head in an X pattern, severing his head from his shoulders in one painful second. He doubt he'd feel it, his skull heavy with the feeling of passing out and hearing fading along with sight, but before he fell into his expected blissful abyss he heard a distinct sound.

'Gunshots...' it was his last thought and he'd wished he'd had a better one if this was the last time he'd see the light of day, feeling that his old bones had finally given up the ghost and accepting that fact.

Raul could feel his awareness returning, could this have been what it was like to go to the afterlife? His guess was soon answered, an all too real pain wracking his body from chest to lower back; it wasn't just pain he felt, there was also warmth, the light, radiating heat that would come from another living souls flesh. The feel of small fingers, shaking as they touched his wounded abdomen, was accompanied by a slight sting from a needle and thread running through his ever deteriorating flesh. He groaned when he tried to move his stiff arm, the second person gasping in surprise and staying quiet for only a second.

"Raul?" the voice was feminine with an empowering tone, yet there was an underlying hint of someone who cared and had been through a lot, and the ghoul only knew one person in the whole Mojave who sounded like that. He could swear he heard his eyelids crack open, foggy grey eyes looking down his chest and blurry sight doing its best to focus on the misshapen, flesh coloured figure.

"Boss is that you?" he figured he'd get an answer faster than trying to see with his own eyes, and he heard nothing, only felt small strong limbs wrap around his neck.

"I'm so glad you're alive, you weren't moving at all for so long." She stood back up, helping the old ghoul sit up on the mattress she had put him on. Moving the muscles in his abdomen stung him horribly, his hand brushing over the stitched up wounds on his chest that Rachael had just finished up. Wherever he was the light was dim, a little battery powered lamp on a dusty bookshelf the only thing the courier could find at the time.

"Where did you come from?" he asked.

"A hole in the ground." She giggled at her own joke. "Kidding, I was wandering about when I happened to hear the familiar sounds of a Deathclaw attacking. I know, I should have run away, but I couldn't bear to leave whoever was being attacked to their death. It just so happens that someone was you. "She reached over to check his arm for any injuries, her own forearm bearing a nasty gash that he could see freshly bleeding.

"You're hurt boss." He said holding her wrist to get a better look.

"Don't worry about it, the big brute just nicked me a little."

"This is a bit more than a nick boss. Do you have any stimpaks?" he asked, her response a negative shake of the head.

"I used the last one on you; you were bleeding far worse than me." She was lying to lessen his concern, her head throbbing from the headache that was coming from lack of blood and a smack against the ground she'd received from the Deathclaw's swipe. Raul reached into his Vaquero jacket that was set at the foot of the mattress, pulling out his only stimpak and sticking it in her forearm. She breathed out after it was removed, never liking the feel of needles, ever since she was a child.

"Thanks Raul, I'm glad I ran into you again, there were some things I had to tell you about myself since you told me so much about your past."

"Really boss? I thought you'd been a zombie all your life, after all you did rise out of a grave." She gave a little laugh at his sarcasm, always in the mode for his dry humour.

"No there's more to me than just a courier. For instance I never lived my whole life in the Mojave."

"I'm not exactly a local either boss." He said.

"I know you traveled from Mexico city all the way here, and I came all the way from Washington D.C." she said in a stern tone.

"The nukes hit that place hard boss. How did you get out practically intact?" she would soon answer his curiosity's questions, once she inhaled the stale air of the abandoned shack she found to shelter them both from enemy and wildlife alike; it was time to reveal a story not as tragic as Raul's, but it still caused her to wake up crying in the middle of the night.

"I wasn't born in a vault; my father told me that when I was 19; he opted to living in one for my safety, to protect me from this unforgiving world. I was stubborn though, from childhood up into my late teens and the day he escaped without telling me, I knew that the vault wasn't my only option and went after him. I wasn't just scared, I was terrified; what if I died before I got to see him?" she paused, taking a breath. "I travelled far, asking residents wherever I went if they'd seen my dad, eventually coming upon a large trench in the middle of many malls. There were super mutants there, and I did my best to sneak by but they still shot the shit out of me. I took shelter in the nearby museum of history, and it was there, where after I was made to do a terrible deed, that I met my body guard Charon."

"Who's Charon?"

"He was six feet of bad ass, protective, redheaded ghoul, and without him I wouldn't be here today. He came with me and we eventually found my dad and set him free from a virtual universe he'd been tricked into entering. I helped him with all of project purity, to create cleaner drinking water for all of the wasteland, but that went to hell fast when the enclave, the enemy of the brother hood of steel at the time, showed up. I raced up the stairs with Charon in tow, just in time to see my dad activate the reactor to explode, flooding the chamber he was sealed in with the enclave's colonel with deadly levels of radiation. There was nothing I could do to save him, and I don't think I've ever cried as much as that day until..." she was beginning to feel choked up, just the thought of the memory she was recalling enough to cause sorrow.

"Boss you don't have to continue, I know quite a bit about you now and I don't want to see you upset." Raul wanted to reassure her but she was as brave as ever, exhaling shakily before continuing.

"We were just wandering across the wasteland, finally completing all of the harshest trials that had come at us. I had run far ahead, hearing Charon's footsteps grow more distant. Then there were gunshots, ones that only his shotgun could create, and when I turned around I saw him running backwards with a Deathclaw charging relentlessly towards him. There was already blood on the ground from the monster slashing at Charon, and I bolted headlong firing my hunting rifle to distract the Deathclaw. Charon was close to death and still he wanted to protect me; he took his eyes off his opponent for one second and that's when the beast took his head off." Her hand clutched into a fist over her chest, eyes shut for a moment of collection.

"I don't think I had ever screamed so loud in agony since my dad passed away. When I had finished my enraged assault on the Deathclaw, I cried for a very long time before finally burying Charon. Losing him was the final straw, I could no longer stay in the capital wasteland; I traveled very far to the west until I reached the Mojave, got a job as a courier, got shot in the head and, well you know the rest." It felt like a large weight was lifted from her chest by telling her sad tale but the physical exhaustion she had remained; she wasn't as young as the Rachael in her story, entering her twenty seventh year of life very soon. Raul turned his upper torso to stand and put his coat back on, a stiff twinge in his shoulder making him involuntarily groan and catch Rachael's attention.

"Stay still you old ghoul, I'll help with those tight muscles. You probably haven't lay down for such a long time that your body doesn't know how to loosen back up." the palm of her hand rested gently on his shoulder, skin calloused from years of using weapons and not at all as soft as when she was a teen. Raul sat on the mattress, watching her walk on her knees to sit behind him, her fingers beginning by kneading firmly into his tissue. He tilted his head back slightly, closing his eyes and feeling relaxed for what seemed like a rare moment in his long lifespan.

"By the way, you can call me Rachael. I'm no longer your boss; I'm your friend, if you want me to be." She said.

"Why wouldn't I want you to be?" Raul said somewhat quietly, feeling her hands move to his almost exposed shoulder blade.

"No reason really, I just remembered what you had said when you told me that story a long time ago about your ranch and what happened after the bombs fell. When those Raiders got your sister and she died, you said you wanted to be alone forever. Do you still want to be alone?" she flattened her hand and rubbed his back, watching his shoulder blade move and a pleased grunt sound from the old Vaquero.

"After being apart from you, I realised I want to travel with company again. You helped release the burden of my old memories from my mind B- er Rachael; I can't think of anyone I'd want more as a friend than you." He said turning his head to the side to glance at her, seeing her expression sadden slightly and his eyes asked why.

"It's strange to hear me say this Raul but I have to be honest. I trust ghoul's far more than regular humans." She said working her massage back to his shoulders.

"There's nothing strange about that Rachael, I was that way for quite some way after the ones I loved died."

"I don't blame you. I just thought it would be important for you to know. Since that night I had to sleep with Benny to get that stupid chip back, I felt like I not only betrayed myself, but you as well." This sentence made Raul turn and look back again; he could remember when she had walked back out of The Tops casino that long while ago, the much sought after platinum chip in her hands and a little more than shame in her eyes. He knew from the way she looked that she'd gone to the highest measures to get the delivery that had been stolen, and he remembered feeling a surge of rage flow through him, the kind a protective boyfriend would feel if his girl was looked at by another man.

"I told you that I slit the bastard's throat and stripped him bare, but you were still acting strange Raul." She brought him out of his memories and he slipped his hand over the one she had still working his shoulder, stopping Rachael's movements.

"I was angry, I've always been extra protective around the women I love." He was a wise old ghoul and knew there was no point hiding his feelings, the reward for his honesty a smile from the former courier. She leaned forward, kissing him on the cheek and holding it for a few seconds before her hand took her lips place, leaving Raul just a little stunned.

"And this is why I like ghouls. Most of them always have been more honest than any man I've come across." Rachael went and delivered a full kiss on his lips, which she noted were more full than Charon's had been despite Raul's greater increase in age. He was a little unsure if what he was doing was right, and stopped for a moment.

"Are you sure I'm not too old for you Rachael?" He asked and she hugged his back to her front.

"I'm twenty seven, which makes me pretty old in human years. I'm no spring hen." She said remembering the lines of old age faintly showing on her face when she'd looked in the lake earlier that moment. He turned, holding the side of her neck in his palm.

"If that's so, then I must say you age beautifully." He was usually sarcastic which she always liked, but it was when he was sincere that she loved him more. Smiling, she sat at one end of the mattress, making Raul curious as to what she was thinking.

"You've heard of 'you scratch my back I'll scratch yours' right? How about we keep true to that with the massage I gave you being given in return." She undid the top of her reinforced leather armour, allowing it to slip off and hit the floor with a metallic clank. The tattered fabric that was her tank top was thrown like the garbage it was, her skin remaining smooth thanks to a somewhat controlled temperature the shack provided. Her torso was laden with scars, remnants of deep wounds that were inflicted over the years, and her breasts were full, beginning to lose their perky nature but to Raul she was a gorgeous smooth skin. Rachael lay down on her belly awaiting her companion, who sat gently atop her lower back in seconds. He was firm with the pressure his hand emitted, and from the soft groans Rachael purred, he was glad she felt as good as he had.

"I'm sorry you had to go through just as much heartache as me." He said rubbing the back of her neck.

"Don't be...it's the entire world that should apologise. All those strangers took my family and my friends away." She rolled over, catching him off guard as his hands landed on her soft abdomen for support. "But I won't let that happen to you. After all you're the last Tejada." she snaked her arm up his while his hand cupped her cheek.

"And you'll be the last one I'll ever protect...boss." he knew she'd scowl when he went against calling her by name, making her look adorable.

"I told you-" he was the one who kissed her this time and Rachael could swear she was melting into it, his lips pulling away while his body moved to cover hers.

"Let's get some sleep, we both need to heal." Raul cradled her, feeling that after all she'd told him, comfort was her greatest desire.

"Thank you Raul, for everything." She could feel his nod, the cheek overtop of hers moving slightly. 'Please whatever you do, don't succumb to your wounds; I don't know what I'll do if I lose someone again.' She thought this to herself, not wanting to have Raul worry about her fears. He was fast with a gun and smart as any young punk, but the truth of the fact was that his body was still old, and she hoped she did a good enough job to keep him alive.

The morning sun raised a deep orange hue, illuminating the headstones and crosses of a small graveyard. Rachael stood over the grave, a solemn look on her face and red rims under her eyes. Footsteps approached her from behind and she thought to reach for her gun, until she turned and saw who it was and the only thing she shot was a smile.

"You got all your gear Rachael? It's a long way to California." Raul said in his raspy throat, and she gave a thumb up.

"I'm ready to hit the road, the Mojave has nothing left for me." She slung her pack over her shoulder and began heading in the desired direction at a moderate pace, her ghoul companion staying alert and close behind her. It had never been coincidence that Rachael ran into Raul as he was attacked; she had been tracking him for days and just happened to catch up when the Deathclaw showed up. She felt something was missing when he wasn't around and she had known by now that it was purely and only him. Everyone needed someone in a post apocalyptic hellhole, even if they had started out as the Lone Wanderer; A legend and a mystery only to those who didn't know her past.

_The End_

_Hee hee, this I think is only the second fiction where there wasn't a sex scene, I just didn't feel it in the moment. The moral of this short story is that even broken hearts can heal, that and Raul is the newest awesome companion (still like you too Charon.) please leave me delicious reviews for it is rare that I am writing fictions again _


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